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Former prime minister Joe Clark fears we may lose the ties that bind us as a nation

Former prime minister Joe Clark says indifference remains a threat to this country's national unity.

Photograph by: Julie Oliver
, Ottawa Citizen

OTTAWA — Canada risks devolving into a country of “gated communities” with “indifferent” citizens who lose the ties that bind them as a nation, warns former prime minister Joe Clark.

“There’s the old T.S. Eliot line about ending with a whimper, not a bang,” Clark said in an exclusive interview with Postmedia News.

”The real threat to this country isn’t that we will explode, that there will be some civil war somewhere. It is that we will just naturally fall back into our principalities.”

Clark’s comments came as he participated in a special Postmedia News project in which all of Canada’s six living former prime ministers were interviewed on current issues.

On a range of topics — from national unity to foreign affairs — Clark spoke strongly about the need for Canada to take a good look in the mirror.

He said the country may be held back from reaching its potential unless politicians lead national debates that inspire Canadians to rally around important causes — as they once did, for example, around medicare.

Without such debates — a crucial current topic for Clark is the environmental consequences of natural resource development — Canadians may lose their way, he said.

Clark, who has long described Canada as a “community of communities,” argued that it has always been critical for national unity that leaders prove “the worth of the whole to the parts.”

“I think the greatest threat to Canada is not some disease that will come, not some attack that will come. But we will just grow sufficiently indifferent that instead of finding national reasons to come together, to be our best, to be excited about our whole country, we sort of slip off into our gated communities and stay there and watch the world go by.

“And it will then go by us with a rapidity, and we’ll be sitting there wondering what happened.”

Canada once used royal commissions to hold national debates: culture in the 1950s, medicare and bilingualism in the 1960s, the economy and free trade in the 1980s. But Clark noted that after the constitutional discussions of the 1980s and 1990s, federal governments avoided big debates — with the exception of the last royal commission, on health care, a decade ago.

“We have fallen out of the practice of talking about national issues. And if you don’t talk about the large community, people retreat into their more local communities.”

Clark, now 73, was prime minister of a minority Progressive Conservative government for nine months in 1979-80.

Postmedia News asked the six former prime ministers, to address six key themes.

When Canada became a G7 member, it had the world’s seventh largest GDP, Clark noted. “We’ll never be that again.” Instead, emerging countries with large populations will now overtake Canada in economic clout.

However, Canada has advantages: natural resources; a reputation as a country that promotes diversity; and a growing base for ideas and innovation. “People say that’s soft stuff, that it doesn’t really matter much. It matters immensely. And it matters particularly in the kind of world we’re going into,” Clark said.

He said Canada must honestly debate the impact of its resource industry on global warming — for its own environmental self-interest, and its international reputation.

“We used to have in the country a very strong reputation as environmental leaders,” said Clark. “It’s not been as well used recently, but it is still there. It can be ignited again, and it can be very important when that happens.”

2. The state of the political system and public participation.

Clark said he always recognized when he was squaring off with Pierre Trudeau in the 1970s that Parliament was an adversarial system — but there was a limit.

“There was a combination of an adversarial nature and a very profound respect. A respect for the institution. There were things you didn’t do. And quite often, a respect for the other people who were there.

“That respect has withered over the last little while. And we simply have to build that back.”

Clark said governments should give more leeway to their own MPs, noting that when the Brian Mulroney government was introducing the controversial GST in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it allowed one of its own MPs, Commons finance chairman Don Blenkarn, to criticize the tax.

“That’s not a threat to a government’s integrity; on the contrary, it enriches a government.”

3. National unity.

Clark said the Sept. 4 provincial election victory by the separatist Parti Quebecois doesn’t mean Quebecers are itching for independence. But it shows the province’s “indifference to Canada.”

“They are just opting out. Why should they be part of this? There are answers to that, but nobody is offering those answers.”

Clark said it doesn’t help that many of the Harper government’s policies are “seen as fundamentally hostile to Quebec.”

4. The state of the health-care system.

“There are weaknesses with it, but the idea that people should be served on the basis of their health, not their wealth, is fairly deeply embedded here,” said Clark.

But he added the system is out of date and needs reform. For instance, he said, it should provide chronic care outside of hospitals, and invest in palliative treatment and seniors’ homes.

5. Foreign policy and U.S. relations.

If Canada wants to play a role on the world stage, “we have to occupy it,” Clark said.

“Recently we have been stepping back from very important parts of the world stage.”

For example, he said that between 2001 and 2010, six of the fastest-growing countries in the world were in Africa. “We had an immense base in Africa. We could restore it.”

Canada has, without much public debate, turned its foreign-aid program into a trade program, he said.

“We have become much more a part of the rich world, and much less a part of the whole world in the last few years. Our great strength is as part of the whole world.”

Why does it matter? While strong relations with the U.S. are critical, that country’s world influence is diminishing, said Clark.

“It is very important in our relations with other powers that we be seen as Canada — seen on our own basis, not merely as a neighbour to the United States.”

“We have to provide that sense of caring deeply about the country. Seeing that this is a whole country of value, not just a place we can take for granted or a place in which we really occupy only one room and we’re not too concerned about the people in the other rooms of Canada.”

Canada’s biggest opportunity is to become a world leader in areas such as cultural diversity and environmental resource management, he said.

“Some countries, some people, are going to have to be in the forefront of solving that. Who better placed than we?”

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